Editorial | In wake of latest shooting, stop the madness

As the death toll rose yesterday from what President Barack Obama described as "yet another mass shooting," Americans were left to fathom yet another unfathomable mass murder-this time in Washington, D.C., at a U.S. Navy complex about three miles from the White House.

By late afternoon, 13 people including the gunman had died following the early morning shooting at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, where some 3,000 people work to maintain the Navy's ships, submarines and combat systems.

While the motives of the perpetrator and circumstances of the shooting remained murky yesterday, the basic elements of the story are sadly familiar: a shooter enters a busy workplace or public area, usually armed with semi-automatic weapons, and opens fire, seemingly at random, killing and wounding anyone in his path.

It happened last December at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where the slaughter of 20 small children and six adults by a disturbed gunman stunned the nation and renewed calls for better controls of military-style assault weapons. In recent years, it has happened at a Colorado movie theater, a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin and an Oregon shopping mall.

It has happened in Kentucky at a Paducah high school and a Louisville printing plant.

Yet much of the nation remains paralyzed when it comes to even minimal efforts at sensible restrictions on firearms. Nor do we understand what drives such individuals to commit such horrific acts so we can try to prevent them.

President Obama noted the irony that the shooting occurred at a seemingly secure site where members of the military work.

"They know the dangers of serving abroad," he said. "Today they faced the unimaginable violence they wouldn't have expected here at home."

But the most eloquent appeal for an end to the madness came from Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief medical officer of Washington Hospital Center, where some of the shooting victims were treated.

"There's something wrong here when we have these shootings," she said. "We just cannot have one more shooting with so many people killed. This is not America. This is not Washington, D.C."

"Let's get rid of this."

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Editorial | In wake of latest shooting, stop the madness

As the death toll rose yesterday from what President Barack Obama described as ?yet another mass shooting,? Americans were left to fathom yet another unfathomable mass murder?this time in Washington,